More from Arts
The unseen Victoria Wood
For a few years now I have been living with Victoria Wood. That sounds all wrong, obviously, and yet no…
'You should see some of the other scripts that come through': Robert Carlyle interviewed
Robert Jackman talks to Robert Carlyle about Begbie, playing a Tory prime minister and the merits of keeping your head down
Absurd and amusing, solemn and scholarly: Charles Jencks's Cosmic House reviewed
An editor once told me: always look at the loos. It was remarkable, she said, how many grand cultural projets,…
Sale of the century: the contents of the Sitwells' mansion are going under the hammer
In my bedroom there is a small lidded laundry basket. It was designed by Geoffrey Lusty for Lloyd Loom, a…
The vivid memory-scapes of Hong Kong master Wong Kar Wai
Tanjil Rashid on the vivid memory-scapes of Hong Kong master Wong Kar Wai
The Turner Prize shortlist is an embarrassment
In 2019 I was asked to be on the jury for the Turner Prize. I was pretty happy about this.…
The art of the asparagus
Manet’s ‘Botte d’asperges’ are probably the most famous asparagus in the world. The artist painted the delicious white- and lilac-tinged…
The bizarre art of Scottie Wilson deserves to be better known
On eBay I have an alert set for ‘Scottie Wilson’. Nine times out of ten, it’s a diamanté Scottie dog…
‘I’ve seen the bare bones of London’: street painter Peter Brown interviewed
‘I’ve been seeing the bare bones of London,’ explains the landscape artist Peter Brown, who is known affectionately as ‘Pete…
The artists ensnared by the capitalist system they affect to despise
Stuart Jeffries on the artists ensnared by the capitalist system they affect to despise
Can VR help to sell art to kids?
Some pictures are now so mediated that their actual physicality has long been dwarfed by a million reproductions. The ‘Mona…
Community music-making is the jewel in the British crown
Community music-making is the unifying jewel in the British crown, says James MacMillan
How 20th-century artists rescued the Crucifixion
Two millennia ago, in the outer reaches of the empire, the Romans performed a routine execution of a Galilean rebel.…
Why are the Oscars such a lousy guide to great cinema?
Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland,predicted to win big at this year’s Oscars, is not a terrible film. It’s a slight, sentimental Grapes…
Clubhouse left me with one question: why am I here?
For my 13th birthday in 1995 I requested — and got — my own ‘line’. This meant that I could…
How Algernon Newton made great art out of empty streets and dingy canals
Quite late in life Walter Sickert paid his first visit to Peckham Rye. He was excited, apparently, because he had…
Why is the smoky, febrile art of Marcelle Hanselaar so little known?
I first became aware of the work of Marcelle Hanselaar in a mixed exhibition at the Millinery Works in Islington.…
The grumpy genius of Raymond Briggs
No one captures better than Raymond Briggs the ambivalence that many of us feel towards the festive season, says Daisy Dunn
Every page of this astonishingly beautiful ode to the citrus is a treat
Laura Freeman is transported by J.C. Volkamer’s astonishingly beautiful ode to the citrus
What's an art form that feels unpopular and pointless, but isn't? Video art
How did the universe begin? Did the great god Bumba vomit us up, as the Kuba believe? Or did we…
Maggi Hambling's Wollstonecraft statue is hideous but fitting
Frankly, it is rather hideous — but also quite wonderful, shimmering against the weak blue of a late November sky.…
Why great speeches are made for stage and screen
Curious thing, writer’s block. If you believe it exists. Terry Pratchett didn’t. ‘There’s no such thing,’ he said. ‘It was…
The rise of blocked-off design
Plexiglass bubbles hover over diners’ heads in restaurants. Plastic pods, spaced six feet apart, separate weightlifters in gyms. Partitions of…
The death of the Southbank Centre
The roots of the Southbank Centre’s current crisis stretch back to before the pandemic, says Oliver Basciano
Hats (and knickers) off to the hosts: The Naked Podcast reviewed
I spent half an hour this week listening to a woman make a plaster cast of her vulva. Kat Harbourne,…
